a little longer
by newtypeshadow
Summary: Lex Luthor has nothing against Superman. He just wants a little more time. (an AU series of ficlets)
1. rescue

dc drabble  
author: newtypeshadow  
05-14-04

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The day Superman saved him from being kidnapped from a private hospital, Lex Luthor's white blood cell count went down, his red cells stopped mutating, and his body stopped trying to destroy itself.  
  
Before, Lex had kept kryptonite--very expensive, but available on the black market for about .24% of the population--in his penthouse, office, and occasionally on his person. He had been afraid, cautious of such a great power. After the rescue Lex took all his kryptonite and divided it between his personal penthouse lab and his LeXcorp research labs. He had a feeling it would prove useful.

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_please review, especially those of you familiar with the dc-verse--i don't have a beta, nor someone who knows overmuch about the comic superman/lex luthor dynamic. all i know is past smallville seasons and what Te says on her lj._


	2. dizzy and alive

dc drabble  
author: newtypeshadow  
05-13-04

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Lex Luthor had never felt so good as when Superman's giant golden hand wrapped around his pale neck and ground his bald head into the wall.  
  
He had wanted to go out with a bang, to take the only extra-terrestrial on earth with him. It would be his greatest victory; he'd be remembered, forever connected to the world's most beloved hero. Instead, he had been thwarted. Lex hoped Superman would kill him, use his cold fury and heat-vision to burn through Lex's eyes and into his Mensa IQ brain. Lex had been steadily dying for months, after all. He wanted his demise to mean something.  
  
He felt dizzy. It was to be expected, dangling feet off the ground with flesh-covered steel crushing his windpipe. But he also felt _very_ alive. If he survived the alien's wrath, if this really _wasn't_ coincidence, then it seemed he and Superman had a future together. Lex would make sure of it.

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please review, especially those of you familiar with the dc-verse--i don't have a beta, nor someone who knows overmuch about the comic superman/lex luthor dynamic. all i know is past smallville seasons and what Te says on her lj.


	3. a bat in metropolis

dc drabble - bat in metropolis  
author: newtypeshadow  
05-14-04

* * *

Lex Luthor was angry. He'd been short of breath for three days and woken suffocating more than he liked to think about. At night Hope guarded his bedside, gun and oxygen tank at the ready.  
  
It was the alien's fault, of course. Lex had survived almost six months beyond his first attempt to kill Superman by staging almost weekly attacks on Metropolis. The citizens didn't know, of course, but then Lex never really intended to hurt anyone--just survive a little longer, a little longer, a little longer.  
  
What Lex wanted to know was, what the hell was Batman doing in Metropolis? It made him want to send an armored car into Gotham to blow the hell out of Wayne Enterprises; that, at least, would take care of a competitor, and give the black bat the biggest mess possible to clean up in those dark streets. It would give Lex something to do besides think about his will when he was looking over reports; feel so dizzy in the mornings it was unsafe to stand in the shower; hole up in his penthouse planning scheme after scheme to pay back the alien for sending someone else to fight Lex, as if he wasn't good enough to bother with, as if that fucking meathead alien didn't understand that Lex was too much a _Luthor_ to die with a whimper, die with anything less than the world looking on, hushed.

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_please review, especially those of you familiar with the dc-verse--i don't have a beta, nor someone who knows overmuch about the comic superman/lex luthor dynamic. all i know is past smallville seasons and what Te says on her lj._


	4. who's afraid of the big black bat?

dc drabble - who's afraid of the big black bat?  
author: newtypeshadow  
05-14-04

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Because he'd been feeing miraculously good since his interview with Lois Lane a scant two days ago, Lex Luthor was well enough to be coherently pissed off when Batman showed up once more rather than Superman. And because he'd been feeling so amazing, Lex even had a backup plan prepared for the bat: chaos in Gotham, a warning for Superman not to involve outsiders in their matches again.  
  
So when Batman dropped like a rippling stone to the floor of another obscure control room, Lex sneered at him and looked every inch as menacing as he was. He considered Batman beneath him--they had the same muscular frame, the same level of high-tech gadgetry at their disposal. But while Batman needed a mask and cowl, Lex's face needed nothing to conceal his thoughts and inspire fear; though the bat was clever, Lex was a genius.  
  
The edge on Lex's smug face should have been warning enough, but superheros were known for bravery (foolishness) and extreme luck. Luck was no match for an angry Luthor. Batman managed three steps forward before Lex pushed an innocuous silver button to his right, and the battle was over. He waited for the set of the hero's jaw, the hint of barely-suppressed savagery humming through him like a taught string. Then Lex walked away.  
  
At the door he hesitated, calculated afterthought in the curve of his fingers, his unaffected voice. "Pity about that break in Arkham, isn't it? And Gotham without a hero."

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please review, especially those of you familiar with the dc-verse--i don't have a beta, nor someone who knows overmuch about the comic superman/lex luthor dynamic. all i know is past smallville seasons and what Te says on her lj.


	5. why?

dc drabble - why are you doing this?  
author: newtypeshadow  
05-14-04

* * *

"Why are you doing this?"  
  
It was the first time Superman had asked, though he'd railed and lectured for almost a year now. Strangely, he didn't ask when he was losing or suffering; it was Lex at the disadvantage, kryptonite buttons thirty-five stories down, torn shirt flapping in the wind, bald head held over the edge.  
  
"I don't want to die." The wind carried his soft admission into the skies, and Lex couldn't read the look Superman gave him before letting go and disappearing after it.

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please review, especially those of you familiar with the dc-verse--i don't have a beta, nor someone who knows overmuch about the comic superman/lex luthor dynamic. all i know is past smallville seasons and what Te says on her lj.


End file.
